Warwick company’s work force tackles Wolf Run is support of their boss

Published:07:00Monday 20 April 2015

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The workforce at Warwick company Vocis has united in support of their boss Mike Everitt by running the Wolf Run

Mr Everitt is currently undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer

The colleagues and their friends and families were raising money for the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund

Almost the entire workforce of a Warwick-based company have taken part in the notorious Wolf Run to raise money for research into the cancer their boss is facing.

A 30-strong team of colleagues from the specialist automotive consultancy Vocis, and their families and friends ran, swam and crawled their way through the gruelling 10 kilometre cross-country obstacle event to raise £10,000 for the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund (PCRF) in support of company co-founder Mike Everitt.

Mr Everitt, 54, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in October last year and has been told that his tumour was inoperable.

However, after a course of chemotherapy, he is now currently undergoing a tough regime of radiotherapy and is hoping this treatment will shrink his tumour enough so that it can be removed.

Mr Everitt said: “The reaction and support from Vocis staff and everyone involved in the fundraising has been absolutely amazing and humbling.

“The fundraising has been terrific.

“We’ve had extremely generous donations from so many individuals, car manufacturers and other customers from all over Europe, some of whom don’t even know me very well personally.

Mr Everitt is a long standing and much respected member of the UK automotive engineering community.

He worked his way up from an apprenticeship at Jaguar in the 1970s to helping design the transmission and control system in the £1 million Bugatti Veyron - the fastest road car in the world, before co-founding Vocis, which now works with many of the leading car manufacturers in the world.

Craig Wilkinson, test and development engineer at Vocis, said: “When Mike told us about his diagnosis it hit us all hard, as the statistics of this cancer make grim reading.

“Vocis really is like a big family and we all wanted to do something to help.

“Funding research into new treatments is vital and I think the numbers of people who signed up to do the run including his wife Amanda, his two sons, clients, associates and close friends shows the regard that everyone has for Mike.

“This isn’t staff fundraising for their boss out of duty, this is a group of people fundraising for a friend they care deeply about and respect enormously.”

The PCRF is the national charity dedicated to funding research to develop new ways to treat one of the most lethal types of cancers which is difficult to diagnose and unusually aggressive.

Maggie Blanks, PCRF founder and chief executive officer said: “It’s wonderful to hear how friends, colleagues and associates have united to support Mike – it speaks volumes about him and the ethos of the whole company.

“We’re very grateful to be chosen to receive the funds raised by Team Vocis from the gruelling Wolf run event.

“I can promise that it will be put to great use, funding cutting edge research projects run by the UK’s best scientists that we hope will lead to new treatments to tackle this disease. Go Team V.”